Today the minimum wage, the bottom floor upon which most other hourly wages are built, goes up for the first time in 10 years, the longest stretch of federal inaction since the minimum wage was first instated in 1938, from $5.15 to $5.85 an hour. The Federal minimum wage is at a 52-year low when adjusted for inflation, its lowest since 1955 and 20% lower than it was in 1997, the last time the minimum wage was increased. During the same time period CEOís have seen a 73% increase in pay while the pay of members of Congress is up 24% and the Presidentís salary has increased 100%.

To save themselves the embarassment of publicly voting themselves more money, in 1989 Congress voted to give itself automatic cost-of-living adjustments. Last years was $3,300, one-third of a minimum-wage worker's annual salary. Salaries for members of Congress have gone up $31,600 since the last minimum-wage increase. An average CEO (Chief Executive Officer) earns more before lunchtime than a minimum wage worker earns all year. In 1978, CEO's were paid only 78 times as much as minimum wage earners. In 2005, an average corporate overlord was paid 821 times as much as a minimum wage earner. Had the minimum wage risen as fast as CEO compensation it would now be $23.03 an hour, and the average worker would be making $110,126 a year.

When the minimum wage is expressed as a percentage of per capita GDP (Gross Domestic Product), the US pays better than Angola, Armenia, and Burundi, but less (often much less) than such economic powerhouses as Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan...well, pretty much everyone else on the planet.

In terms of comparative poverty, someone working a full-time minumum-wage job in the United States is much poorer when compared to the rest of their community than almost anyone anywhere else on earth.

It seems that most companies (mine included) will not be raising any of their wages if they are already over miminum. Ex: If you make $7.50/hr and the miminum wage goes up to 7.25/hr. our wages stay the same because they are already over miminum.

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Unavoidably Detained by the World

"Irishness is not primary a question of birth or blood or language; it is the condition on being involved in the Irish situation, and usually of being mauled by it."-Conor Cruise O'Brien